True and Faithful Be
by osirisapollo
Summary: When Dean realizes the perfect gifts for Castiel are experiences, he takes the angel downtown for some Christmas shopping. Hilarity ensues. Prequel to 'Afforded the Greatest Glee' -Beginnings of Destiel. Dean is in love. PART 2 of the 'O Christmas Tree' series.
1. Chapter 1

It was a fantastic plan, and everything was going exactly on schedule. Dean's mother hadn't asked any questions at all about them leaving for the day. Sam had just given him a smile that said he knew too much, and told them to have a good time. Castiel hadn't asked any questions either, even after the Impala had rolled passed the exit they usually took to town.

Dean, very casually, mentioned that they were going to the city instead, and Cas just nodded his head and returned to staring aimlessly out the passenger window. It was a two hour drive to the city, and although there wasn't much conversation on the drive, it was peaceful and almost relaxing. Which, it turned out, was almost the only peace that the hunter would be able to find for the day.

Dean had spent the better part of a month figuring out what he was going to do about his feelings for Castiel. He decided to start by getting the angel the perfect gift for Christmas. The perfect gift, it turned out, was impossible. The angel never seemed to want or need for anything, and although the hunter dug through all his memories, he came up short on the angel expressing interest in any material possessions.

After his month of deliberation, though, he realized that he had been looking in the wrong place the entire time. The angel may not care for material things, but there was one thing that always seemed to make his angel happy, and Dean could make sure he got the best of it.

Castiel loved people watching. He didn't seem to care what they were doing. He would stare in rapt fascination as Sam showed him how to use a blender to make smoothies. He would sit quietly at a diner and watch the other patrons interact with each other. He would contemplate every movement as Dean tuned up Baby. And he would focus intently on Mary's hands as she braided her hair. It was like no matter what they were doing, or who it was, the angel could not stop watching the human race. So, Dean had a plan to show Castiel all the people he could handle.

It was days before Christmas, and everyone would be out shopping. The hunter knew that now would be the perfect time to observe humanity. He was even going to go that one step farther and take the angel to the city. Dean was going to take the angel downtown at Christmas, and if the place was decked out for the holiday, and the people were more cheerful than usual, well that was just an added bonus.

Finding a place to park the car was a nightmare. Dean refused to park Baby on the street while there was so much traffic, so they had to find a real parking lot. Of course, all the parking lots were full. Everyone in the entire county seemed to be downtown for their Christmas shopping. Even though the hunter had been counting on that, he hadn't really thought through the parking situation.

They ended up parking at the very top of a parking garage, the only place Dean could trust that his car might stay safe from the overabundance of passerby. It was windy and cold, and miserable as hell walking from the car to the staircase. The elevator didn't even make it up that high.

They had to walk down two flights of stairs before they could hit the elevator, and by the time they got in the silver box that actually blocked the wind, Dean felt like his hands were going to fall off, they were so frozen. This was not going as he had planned so far. He was miserable already and they had barely made it into town!

"Sorry, Cas. I just couldn't leave her down on the street with this much going on." The hunter rubbed his hands together and blew warm air over them, trying to get some feeling back into them.

Castiel just looked confused. "It's fine Dean, I understand."

It took the hunter a moment to realize why the angel was confused. Oh yeah. Castiel didn't feel the cold. Dean was the only one suffering from his own decision. As irritating as that was, at least the weather wasn't going to effect Castiel's enjoyment of the day the hunter had planned for him.

He figured they might as well start at the best part, and he lead the angel toward the city center where a giant tree had been set up for the holiday.

It was huge. The lowest branches were at least twenty feet from the ground. The top of the tree looked at least as tall as the surrounding buildings. Defying all sense of gravity with the ridiculous height of the tree, there were huge balls and other ornaments scattered aimlessly around it. They had to be the size of the Impala for crying out loud. And considering how big the star looked from the ground, it was probably the size of the fucking bunker.

Castiel looked completely fascinated. The closer they got to the tree, the higher his head tilted. The hunter grabbed his arm and steered him around some innocent bystanders that the angel was about to run down.

"Not too bad, hey Cas?" Dean smiled at the look full of wonder on the other man's face. "Wait until later when it's all lit up."

Their first stop was the biggest department store in the area. There were four floors of clothes and shoes, perfumes and jewelry. On every available surface there were racks set up with gift sets, and bags. The floors shone with wax, and the pillars were decked in holiday cheer.

There were so many people collected in the place that they had to duck and dodge their way in. Once inside the irritation was worth it, though.

Castiel didn't seem to be able to keep his eyes in one place. They darted from Christmas trees displaying little paper angels to display cases filled with diamonds. From the people in their red and green sweaters to the cash registers beeping and ringing. His face held a quiet excitement, which was just what Dean had been looking for.

"Come on, buddy. Let's go up to one of the higher floors." The hunter figured from a higher vantage point the other man would have more to see. And the likelihood of being trampled might be a little less.

Dean headed for the escalators, clearly visible in the center of the store. Castiel followed him closely, while his eyes flittered from one thing to another. Dean tried to keep an eye on him so that he wouldn't get lost, since he seemed to not be paying much attention to where he was going. That is until they actually reached the escalators, and while the hunter stepped on the passing stair and started to rise, Castiel stopped dead and stared at the contraption.

"Cas, hurry up!" Dean yelled. He began trying to walk back down, fighting the steady rise of the step he had been on.

"What is that?" Castiel was again fascinated by a human contraption, and as funny as it usually was watching him marvel over trivial things, it was less fun when Dean was slowly but steadily being pulled away from him. The hunter upped his pace of fighting the moving staircase.

"Hey! You can look at it when we get to the top, man! You're going to get left behind!" Not that the angel wasn't perfectly capable of being alone, Dean felt that they shouldn't be separated while in this crowded madhouse.

Castiel looked a combination of confused and concerned as he continued to stare at the space between where the floor met the stairs, and Dean was suddenly reminded of the fear that some children had of escalators. He remembered how Sammy used to make his dad pick him up and carry him over that tiny gap, as if he would fall to his doom if he accidently misstepped. Shit.

Dean began to fight harder against the pull of the moving ground underneath him, practically running to make it down the step before another one rose up to meet him. And then the worst thing possible happened. Someone stepped onto the bottom and started to rise toward him.

She had a sour face that gave the impression that she was not amused by much, and when she saw Dean headed the wrong direction down the escalator her eyes widened and her mouth pulled further into a frown. She glared at him as she stepped to the side, allowing that he should pass when they would inevitably meet.

Dean gave her a small smile and gestured toward Castiel, as if to explain why he was acting like a teenager, but realized that probably hadn't helped his case about a second after he had done it. She had turned, possibly expecting to see a frightened child and instead saw a fully grown man staring avidly at the slowly moving handrailing.

The glare she returned him took away the rest of Dean's goodwill, and before she could say anything as they passed each other, he sarcastically shot off at the mouth as he was wont to do.

"He just got off the boat from Africa." He told her, ignoring her confused frown and running the rest of the way down.

Finally hitting the bottom, he paused to catch his breath and lead the angel out of the way of the foot traffic gathering there. He huffed out a few breaths while holding the stitch in his side.

"I'm not a jogger like Sam, buddy. I hope that's the last bit of running we have to do today." Although the angel hadn't done any running.

"They don't have these in Africa?" Castiel asked, frowning at the contraption again.

"What?"

"You told her I was from Africa. Do they not have these things?" He gestured towards it.

Dean huffed a little laugh at that. Of course the angel could hear him. "It's called an escalator, Cas, and I don't know. I'm sure they do, somewhere. I was just trying to make her feel like a bitch, which she was."

"Because she was angry that you were going the wrong direction." Castiel nodded his head like he understood.

"Because you're not from around here, and you didn't know what you were doing. There was no reason for her to be angry about that." Dean defended himself, although he didn't really feel like the angel was being accusatory.

"Now, let's get you on this escalator, Cas. There's nothing to be afraid of."

"I'm not afraid." The angel said, too quickly.

Dean just rolled his eyes. "Yeah, ok. We can just watch a few people get on, and then you can try it. Alright?"

The angel nodded.

When they finally reached the second floor the angel was flushed with accomplishment. Dean would have laughed at that if it hadn't been so damn cute. The hunter lead Castiel over to the opening in the floor so they could look down on the ground level they had, left behind.

"Do you have any ideas of what you'd like to get Sam and Mom for Christmas?"

Castiel looked a little nervous at the prospect. Poor guy had probably never had to buy anyone a gift before. Dean just squeezed his shoulder in support.

"Don't worry, buddy. I'll help you pick something. Sam is usually pretty easy. Whatever nerds are into these days. Or you could get him a giant, dusty old book. Mom is going to be way harder. I have no idea what to get her either."

They stared over the railing at the shoppers below for a while until Dean was struck with inspiration.

"Maybe we should ask some of the other shoppers. We can find some ladies that look about mom's age and find out what they'd like." He ran the idea by Castiel. He also shot a text to his brother to make sure Mary hadn't already given off hints of what she wanted, that Dean had been too dense to notice.

"Yes, I believe that to be sound logic." The angel was still staring down at the other shoppers.

Dean rolled his eyes. "Thanks, Cas." The hunter began scoping out the population for potential ladies. "What about her? She looks around my mom's age, right?" Dean pointed her out and was confused by the look he received from the other man. The look that said that the hunter was a moron.

"Dean, that woman is at least a decade older than your mother."

The hunter looked at the woman again. She didn't look like she could be much older than fifty. He made a face of disagreement and Castiel took his turn to roll his eyes.

"You are not seeing your mother as she truly is. You see her as older, because she is your mother. What you don't seem to realize is that she stopped aging when she died. She may actually be younger than you at this point." He looked pointedly at the woman that Dean had pointed out and then back to him.

Dean did a little math in his head and came to the startling realization that the angel was right. Well, that was fucking weird. Not that having his dead mother back wasn't weird enough already.

"Well, shit." Dean ran a hand through his hair and across his face. "New plan."

Castiel gave the hunter one of his adorably confused head-tilts "I was only mentioning that you would have to look for a younger example. You plan is still valid."

Dean rolled his eyes at the angel. Of course Cas wouldn't understand these things.

"Cas, I can't ask a girl my age what to get my mother for Christmas. She'll think I'm hitting on her." The angel looked even more confused now and Dean sighed.

"It's like announcing that I don't have a girlfriend. If I had a girlfriend, I would be asking her instead of some random woman at a department store."

Castiel look unconvinced by Dean's explanation."You've never been concerned about hitting on women before."

Dean cringed internally. The angel had a point, but he was not about to explain to the angel why he would feel weird talking to women today. He didn't need the knowledge that in Dean's mind they were pretty much on a date.

"Not today, buddy."

"Why is today any different?"

"We are trying to have a nice day out. I'm not here to pick up women. Besides, we are too close to home." There, end of discussion.

"What does our distance from the bunker have to do with your sexual escapades?"

Dean made a face of irritation and disgust before he could help it. "I do not have sexual escapades." That was probably some nonsense the angel had picked up from Sam. "And when you have a random fling with someone, you usually intend to never see that person again. If you accidently do, it's usually petty awkward. So, I try to keep my escapades quite a bit farther from home than this. Less risk of running into that person again."

"That's why you never sleep with anyone you know." The look in the angel's eyes was calculating, and Dean didn't like that. It was times like this that the hunter wished he could tell what the other man was thinking.

"Yep. That is exactly why. Don't want to sleep with anyone you know unless you intend for it to be more than just sex."

Well, it wasn't exactly the way he had planned on getting into this discussion, but at least if the hunter ever got up the nerve to make a move on the angel he'd know where Dean stood. He had laid it all out there, and hadn't even had to have a chick flick moment to do it. A real win-win to be honest.

"So, what do you say we figure out where the nerd section is and see if we can find some gifts for our resident sasquatch?"

"I think that Sam could benefit from a new blender." The angel said, instead of immediately agreeing to Dean's plan.

"What? Did he say he wanted a blender?" The hunter was actually pretty surprised that Castiel had his own idea of what he wanted to get Sam.

"Not in so many words, but he does spend a significant amount of time cursing at the one he currently uses." Well look at that. All that observation might actually come in pretty handy for this gift giving thing.

"That's a great idea, Cas!" Dean may have been a little too enthusiastic about it, but it was worth it to see a dusting of pink across the angel's cheeks. "Now use that memory of yours to help me find gifts for my mom."


	2. Christmas Tree Angels

On the way out of the department store they ended up stuck in a line for the exit. While waiting, Castiel was distracted by the Christmas tree full of paper angels.

"These angels all have names and genders and ages." He tilted his head with a confused frown. Dean looked at the angels on the tree, and sure enough all of those things were written across the angel's robes, along with a short list of random objects like dolls and Hello Kitty.

"Well, that's weird." The hunter shrugged. All of the other trees in the store were decorated in giant gaudy balls and garland. This one was very plain, and only had a bunch of the weird little paper angels all over it.

"I do not recognize any of these names." The real angel said, squinting at more of the angels.

A woman standing nearby with a clipboard huffed a little laugh at them, before inviting herself to come over and talk to them.

"This is an angel tree. Those are not real angel's names." She smiled softly at Castiel.

"What's an angel tree?" Dean asked her, drawing her attention away from his angel before he could say something that would sound weird to the woman.

"These angels represent children. Some of them are from local orphanages, some of them are going through hard times, and some of them have parents that just can't afford to do Christmas for their children this year." She pulled one of the angels off the tree and handed it to him while she explained what they were. "People adopt the angels and can purchase their Christmas gifts for them. It tells you the age and gender in case you want to buy more than what is on the list. The list is just a way for you to know what kinds of things they are already hoping to get for Christmas this year. Some of them only have things the child has shown interest in, if they didn't know what they wanted to ask for."

She smiled at them again, gently pulling the angel back out of Dean's hand and replacing it on the tree.

"Well, that's pretty cool." The hunter was actually pretty impressed with the idea. A lot of kids were going to have a decent Christmas because of other people being willing to help out for the holiday.

He turned to Castiel to herd him in the direction of the door again, but he immediately saw his mistake. The angel had turned his soulful blue eyes on the hunter, and he knew exactly what was going to come out of his mouth, even before it did.

"Dean, can we adopt some of these children?" Okay, so he didn't know exactly what was going to come out of his mouth, after all. He could feel his face heating with embarrassment. If they didn't look like a couple already, they certainly did now. Did Castiel have to ask him in those words?

"Cas, we haven't even gotten any of the shopping done that we planned. Do you really want to add another bunch of presents to the list?"

"Yes." Straight to the point, as always. Dean sighed.

"We're not made of money you know." He hedged. Not that he didn't want to help out some children in need, but if he allowed it the angel would probably adopt the whole damn tree.

"This can be my gift. I would like to use my gift to ensure that these children get presents for the holiday." Dean knew the angel didn't care about material things, and had probably been looking for a reason to not let the Winchesters spend their money on him.

"Cas…" He started, but the hunter knew his argument was dead. Castiel's face had already formed into the kicked puppy expression he had adopted from Sam.

"Dammit." Dean just sighed, and watched the angel's face transform into an expression of extreme happiness. Before the other man could start grabbing all the angels off the tree the hunter spoke up. "You can get two."

Castiel's smile drooped a little at that, but he knew that he had already won as much as he was going to and he started searching through all the angels on the tree. It was as if he was looking for the perfect one, whatever that meant.

"Help me pick one, Dean." He gestured to the tree as he kept up the search for his own angel.

The hunter stepped up to the tree, wondering how he was supposed to pick one. There were at least thirty angels left on the tree and they all looked exactly the same. The first one he looked at was for a little girl, and he realized that he could immediately dismiss about half of the angels. He had absolutely no idea what kinds of things girls liked, so it stood to reason that he should pick a boy.

Eventually, he found a little eight year old boy that liked cars and wanted racing video games. Dean thought they would be able to pull off a few gifts for the kid. Turning to show Castiel his discovery, he found the angel watching him already with a paper angel clasped in his hands.

"I got a little boy who likes cars." Dean told the angel, grinning.

"I found a baby, Dean." Castiel sounded upset. He allowed the hunter to pull the angel from his hands. The list was for things like diapers and bottles and all the little things that babies need. The woman glanced up from her clipboard at them.

"The babies are the most expensive." She told them, her eyes a little sad. "I don't mean to say that we don't appreciate any help we can get, and I certainly don't mean to infer about the state of your finances…" she trailed off as if rethinking her decision to comment, but then seemed to decide it was for the best. "Please don't take that one unless you can afford it. I'd rather that one still be available so the child can get all the things that it needs."

Well, it looked like Dean was about to max out his fake credit card. The second the woman had started talking about taking the angel back, Castiel had grabbed the angel and clutched it to his chest in a protective manner. Fuck. There was absolutely no way Dean was going to be able to take the angel away without breaking his angel's heart.

The hunter sighed heartily and held out his angel to the woman so she could mark it down on her clipboard, gesturing to Cas to do the same.

"Come on, buddy. Let's go see what they have for baby stuff in this place."

The bright smile that Castiel graced them with seemed to draw the attention of everyone in the vicinity.

Once they had found all the items on the baby list and a racetrack and a couple of racing games for the car loving kid, they tried to bring the gifts back to the woman with the clipboard. She regretfully informed them that they would have to drop the gifts off at her headquarters since she had no place to hold them. Luckily the headquarters was only a few blocks away and they could just walk to it.

Their load significantly lightened after the drop, they headed back out to the street to continue searching for the perfect gift for the mother Winchester. Well, Dean looked for gifts for his mother. Castiel seemed to wander aimlessly, just watching the other shoppers go about their business. The third time the angel wandered away Dean had to grab his hand and pull him out of the way of a horse drawn carriage.

"Cas! Watch where you are walking! You almost got trampled!"

Castiel didn't even turn to look at the hunter while he yelled at him. He just watched as the horse walked over the area where he had just been standing. He was still standing too close and Dean gave his hand a tug again before the carriage could clip him on it's way passed.

"Cas! You have got to pay attention! What are you going to do if you wander off and I can't find you? Hitchhike back to the bunker?" The hunter rolled his eyes at the idea. "Just stick with me, alright?"

It took the angel all of three seconds to wander off again. When Dean turned around and noticed the angel was gone, again, he made up his mind to do something about it. Finding the angel staring into the window of a nearby toy shop, he grabbed the other man's hand again.

"If you can't pay attention to where you are going you're going to have to hold my hand, like a child." Dean threatened. Castiel just continued smiling at the children running amok in the store. He tightened his grip on the hunter's hand and tugged him in the direction of the next window display.

How had Dean forgotten that the angel didn't care at all about appearances? Threatening the other man with embarrassment was never going to work. Castiel wasn't letting his hand go either. He was going to end up holding the angel's hand for the rest of the day. Dean pretended to be put out by the idea, but internally he was thrilled. Even though the hunter had been viewing the day as a date, he never thought he'd have an opportunity to do any of the soppy romantic crap that usually came with that sort of thing.

The feeling of being on a date only intensified as the day went on. They had made several stops in different stores. Castiel had seemed interested in literally every one of them, but Dean had only allowed himself to be pulled into the ones that might hold something for his mother or Sam. As much fun as he was having watching the angel enjoy himself, the hunter still wanted to make sure they actually got their shopping accomplished while they were out.

At no point in the rest of their excursion had Castiel released his hand. Dean might have been embarrassed at the looks they received from some of the other shoppers, but the thought of releasing the hand he'd finally gotten to hold in his own stopped him from doing anything about it. They could all go fuck themselves if they didn't like it.

It was as night was beginning to fall that they stumbled upon an alleyway filled with the soothing music of a saxophone. Without much deliberation, they headed down the alley to follow the echos of the instrument. They may have gotten their fill of Christmas music already, what with every store they visited blasting the crap, but somehow this was less irritating. The smooth sounds of the saxophone playing the same songs they had been forced to endure was actually quite pleasant.

The sign above the door said "Underground Jazz Club" and it did not lie. Stepping through the door there was an immediate increase in the volume of the sax, and they were faced with a staircase that only went down. Dean figured the club was probably set up in the basement of whatever store was about them.

The atmosphere of the place said that it was usually a smoky lounge in the fashion of the twentys. Dean almost expected a woman with a tray of cigarettes to pass by. The place was as decked for the holiday as every other business in the city had been, but in a much more muted style. The area was sparsely lit, utilizing the Christmas lights of the decor to keep the space in a muted glow. Each table had a candle burning on it to make it easier for the patrons to see what they were doing. The only real lighting in the place was a spotlight pointed at the stage.

There were only four members of the band on the stage, the saxophone sitting in the center, with a piano on one side and a bass on the other. There was a woman off-center in front of the band. Her dress was made of something sparkly, and the light reflected off of it in a shimmer. She was clearly a singer, with no instrument in her hand, but she was currently just softly swaying to the sounds of the band.

When Dean finally turned his attention from analyzing the place, he found his companion with a look filled with curiosity. He tugged Castiel toward the bar on the far side of the room, and while the angel's eyes seemed to be glued to the saxophone, he followed.

Dean ordered them each the house special for the night, hot buttered rum. He'd never tried it before, but figured it was part of the whole Christmas thing so he gave it a chance. He pushed one over to the distracted angel and sipped at his own while he looked for a place to sit. It was warm and inviting in the bar, and the hunter saw no reason why they couldn't just sit and enjoy the music and warmth of their discovery.

So, it might have been even closer to a date then Dean had originally planned. Sitting at a tiny table, with a little booze and a candle the only light on their faces, it sure felt like a date. The happy smile on Castiel's face whenever he looked at the hunter only solidified the feeling. Although the angel had released his hand, Dean was under the impression that he had every intention of taking it again when they were done here. The hunter was okay with that. He was more than okay with the way the day had been going so far, and could only see things going better from here.

When he finally convinced Castiel to leave the bar, he'd had a couple more drinks then he had intended, and he knew they'd have to stay in town a while longer while it worked its way out of his system. He was not going anywhere near his baby with all this traffic and the warm buzz he could feel across his skin. No way in hell.

Not that it was a chore to spend more time with the angel. A lot of the stores had closed in the time they had been in the bar, and the shoppers were beginning to thin out, finally. They still had one more gift to purchase, so they wandered into a few of the still open stores.

It was as they were being ushered out of the bookstore, so the doors could be locked behind them, that Dean remembered his last surprise for Castiel. He pulled the angel back toward the city's center, excited at the prospect of the reaction he was likely to get. Yes, they had already seen the giant tree in the square, but now the tree would be all lit up, and Dean knew it would be like an entirely different experience this time around.


End file.
